Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Former England International Player now managing a unknown footy team in Portugal

Gazza who in my mind will be best remembered for that legandary goal against Scotland in Euro 96 and those celebration scenes, not to mention his tears at the World Cup, has a lot of reasons to be inducted into this hall of fame. Firstly for being the victim of Vinne Jones during a footy match and being in a resulting amusing picture, when playing for his home town team Newcastle United, then for the above at the 1990 world cup. Then for some looney moments at Lazio, to his spell at Rangers, and of course the drink and drugs not to mention one bad thing about him the wife beating. But he produced some fine moments playing for England, and is a legend in his native Geordieland, Spurs for his goal against the Gooners in the semis of the FA Cup. At Rangers, he is one of the few English men the fans have ever loved. So try and remember more the good than the bad about this legend.

GAZZA we salaute you.

Ali Dia (Sen)

Former Southampton player who has now disapeared into obsecurity

Article from Laugh FC site this made me laugh and have memories of this

In 1996 Graeme Souness immortalised himself in football folklore by falling for an amazing scam that resulted in him signing a player, so bad, that it made Gerard Houllier’s decision to buy Bruno Cheyrou look inspirational.

It all started when Ali Dia, a desperate 30 year-old nobody, convinced his agent to phone the Southampton boss pretending to be World Footballer of the Year George Weah recommending ‘his cousin’ (Ali Dia) as the next big thing.

Souness fell for it quicker than Robert Pires looking for a penalty and Dia was instantly signed up on a month’s loan. As you can imagine, Souness was eager to see what his new acquisition could do, but the Gods of Football Humour were smiling down on the Dell and a proposed reserve game, and Dia’s debut, against Arsenal was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.

That close shave didn’t deter the ‘striker’ who tried to build up his credentials by saying, “I feel I have a bit of pace and I can dribble well. Hopefully I can now show enough of that to the manager and maybe get a place in his squad.”

Once again, Souness took the bait and Dia suddenly found himself on the bench in Southampton’s next game against Leeds. But the unthinkable was to follow. Despite Souness never seeing Dia kick a ball, he brought him off the bench.

After one minute the whole crowd had to pinch themselves, trying not to believe that Coco The Clown was playing. Dia had the touch of an elephant and the deadliness of a fly. He couldn’t control a ball to save his life and after 14 minutes of 'Bambi on ice' the substitute was substituted, and his loan rapidly terminated.

After such a humiliation, you would expect that Souness would have learnt his lesson about taking on a player who clearly can’t play football. I guess this wouldn’t be the right time to mention the £7m he spent on Corrado Grabbi then… oops!

Former Ireland International Footballer, now retired and recently was a Talksport presenter

Cascarino who overall was a legendary player playing for Ireland and is a bit of a legend at Gillingham, Millwall, and at a few other clubs. The most surprising and funny thing is that he knew he could not play for Ireland but still managed around 81 caps for a Londoner with English and Italian parents (no Irish blood), and that her mother was adopted by Irish people. That is one of the main reasons he makes the Hall of Fame, the other reasons are he produced some classic moments with Ireland, and all these reasons give him a good reason to be selected into this gallery.

Mr Cascarino we salaute u LEGEND

Robbie Keane (Ire)

Ireland International currently plying his trade at Tottenham Hotspurs

This guy well and truly deserves to be in my Hall of Fame not just for the fact he is playing for my brothers team, but for his legendary goal against Germany playing for Ireland during the World Cup in 2002 in the group stages right in the last minute of the game. Got to admit even though I am not Irish (as much Irish as the guy mentioned above), it is one of the few non English goals (apart from goals against France and Argentina) I have ever cheered, and is one of the best goals I have ever seen in my life. And for that he well and truly deserves a place in my hall of fame, he is fast becoming a legend in Ireland is allready all time top scorer for his country and is proving to be a much better example of Irish football at its finest than that namesake idiot Roy Keane, who for reasons does not earn a special place in my Hall Of Fame.

Reasons for being entered: He is a class striker who has recently won caps for England, he has played at a fair few clubs, but has demonstrated, class and skill and has the potentional to be a world class player. He started his career at the legendary Tottenham Hotspurs, but never got a chance due to the stingy management of George Graham and Christian Gross, he went to QPR and established himself as a good young striker, sadly QPR were relegated that year, and he went to Pompey, and in the short time he was there scored 19 goals in 39 appearances there before signing for Aston Villa in Feb 2002, sadly the management of John Gregory, Graham Taylor, and David O'Leary did not take much notice of Crouch, he ended up going to Norwich for a loan spell, before signing for the Saints, upseting his old Pompey fans, he took time to establish himself at the Hampshire club but once Harry Redknap arrived, he floushed, scoring 16 goals in 32 appearances that season, sadly the Saints were relegated that year, but Crouch did not go down for them he signed for the Champions League winners Liverpool, and won his first England caps recently, is Crouch going to be Liverpools awaited sucesssor at Anfield, we will wait and see, but either way the guys a legend.

Jakes possibly the youngest entry into my hall of fame, but he has achieved a lot for my football club Brighton already for a 18 year old, being the youngest scorer for Brighton in that memorable LDV Vans Trophy, at the age of 16, being voted the sexiest footballer, and recently is the most popular footy player to the gay community, he is yet to break into the Brighton team, but he won a lot of boys and girl fans in North Hampshire with his impressive loan spell at Aldershot scoring 4 goals in 8 games, this guy has the potentinal to become Sussex's answer to Peter Crouch, if not better than Peter Crouch, so watch out for this guy, but he has done enough to enter my hall of fame.

Possibly one of the best tennis pros of all time and one of the best in the 90's dominating Wimbledon for years, Pistol Pete was one of the tennis pros I looked up to growing up, winning more Grand Slams than anyone else during the 90's. being world no.1 for years. I could go on , but this guy needs no introduction everything he does is legendary. Still sad that he has retired.

More entrys coming soon. Feel free to nominate whoever u want that is a sportsman